This invention pertains to multiplex communication technology and relates to a maintenance and supervisory control method and a maintenance and management system for a multimedia multiplex communication system consisting of multiple multiplex communication equipment where maintenance and supervising of multiple multiplex communication equipment are achieved by one maintenance terminal equipment using common channel signaling.
In a multimedia multiplex communication system, maintenance and supervising must be executed to monitor whether each piece of terminal equipment is functioning properly and to implement restoration work so that the equipment will function properly in case of error. In maintenance and supervising work, a maintenance and supervisory terminal normally collects information from each piece of multiplex communication equipment, sets or refers office data to each piece of multiplex communication equipment, executes various tests and collects results thereof.
Therefore, when maintaining and supervising a multiplex communication system in the past, a method whereby a maintenance terminal for management is installed at each piece of multiplex communication equipment was employed, or when maintenance and supervising were to be made by the maintenance and supervising terminal equipment installed at one location, a method whereby maintenance is executed through data communication by fixed allocation of a band for maintenance communication in the multiplex circuit interconnecting each piece of multiplex communication equipment for maintenance and supervising was employed.
In these conventional maintenance and supervising methods, however, there were problems as described below.
In the case of installing a piece of maintenance terminal equipment at each piece of multiplex communication equipment, there would be many pieces of maintenance terminal equipment, and maintenance personnel had to be dispatched to each installation location of maintenance terminal equipment for maintenance and supervising work, resulting in the problems of high initial cost and high running cost. Furthermore, in order to maintain and manage each piece of multiplex communication equipment, management of the total multiplex communication equipment system would become necessary, which is difficult to accomplish.
On the other hand, in the case of maintenance and supervising through data communication by allocating a maintenance communication band in the multiplex circuit for maintenance and supervising, the maintenance communication band had to be secured within the multiplex circuit between each piece of multiplex communication equipment connected, resulting in a limitation of the data communication band for use by the users, contrary to the basic objective for having a multiplex communication system.